In chapter 6 of his book Roof goes into detail about different types of Christians. One group he looks at is the born-again Christians. When I first read this, I thought it was referring to the people who practice evangelism whole-hartedly, which we touched on earlier. Many Christians do consider evangelism a strong part of their faith, but this is not the only aspect of their faith. This post will be looking at the make-up and values of the group. Here are a few quick facts Roof gives on the born-again Christians.
They make up nearly a third of the Baby Boomer generation. Many have had a memorable moment when they feel like they've "really become a Christian". The members of the group come from all different denominations and religious backgrounds and are bound together by a "spirituality combining the experience of a 'personal God' or a 'personal relationship' with Jesus Christ and Boomer culture and sensibilities". The transformation and spirituality is also highly individualistic.
Now for two aspects of this group of Christians in general that I don't necessarily agree with. Roof states that narrowminded exclusiveism and rigid moral laws that are usually associated with this group are disappearing with the Boomers. He later goes on to say that " half of all Boomer Evangelicals agree that the religions of the world are all 'equally true and good'". From what talking to the people I know that would fit under this category, they are fairly closeminded and believe that their religious views are the only right way. One male student I recently interviewed said that he believed only Christians who believed in Jesus and did not do evil could go to heaven. Everyone else was to go to hell. He didn't say it in quite those terms, but that is the gist of it. What happened to the loving God who sent his son to save all of mankind? I don't believe that God could comdemn anyone to an eternity of hell, but that's getting way too into my own opinion, so I'm stopping now.
As for the end of exclusiveism, I could believe that it has stopped in the sense of the church welcoming everyone into it and not turning anyone away, but if you (in the end) don't believe what they believe, you cannot be correct.
By no means I am saying that members of this group are bad people, their hearts are in the right place and they do many good things, but I think they could be more sensitive to other Christians- and non Christians- whose beliefs differ slightly from their own.
This post was a little harsher than I meant it to be. At the end of the day we must remember who Christians really are and remove any steriotypes that are associated- they are simply people who stand firm in their faith and believe that it is right for them to spread it to others.
They make up nearly a third of the Baby Boomer generation. Many have had a memorable moment when they feel like they've "really become a Christian". The members of the group come from all different denominations and religious backgrounds and are bound together by a "spirituality combining the experience of a 'personal God' or a 'personal relationship' with Jesus Christ and Boomer culture and sensibilities". The transformation and spirituality is also highly individualistic.
Now for two aspects of this group of Christians in general that I don't necessarily agree with. Roof states that narrowminded exclusiveism and rigid moral laws that are usually associated with this group are disappearing with the Boomers. He later goes on to say that " half of all Boomer Evangelicals agree that the religions of the world are all 'equally true and good'". From what talking to the people I know that would fit under this category, they are fairly closeminded and believe that their religious views are the only right way. One male student I recently interviewed said that he believed only Christians who believed in Jesus and did not do evil could go to heaven. Everyone else was to go to hell. He didn't say it in quite those terms, but that is the gist of it. What happened to the loving God who sent his son to save all of mankind? I don't believe that God could comdemn anyone to an eternity of hell, but that's getting way too into my own opinion, so I'm stopping now.
As for the end of exclusiveism, I could believe that it has stopped in the sense of the church welcoming everyone into it and not turning anyone away, but if you (in the end) don't believe what they believe, you cannot be correct.
By no means I am saying that members of this group are bad people, their hearts are in the right place and they do many good things, but I think they could be more sensitive to other Christians- and non Christians- whose beliefs differ slightly from their own.
This post was a little harsher than I meant it to be. At the end of the day we must remember who Christians really are and remove any steriotypes that are associated- they are simply people who stand firm in their faith and believe that it is right for them to spread it to others.
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